====================================================================== Language in India www.languageinindia.com ISSN 1930-2940 Vol. 19:6 June 2019 ===================================================================== Word Order in Biate M Hemminlal Haokip, Ph.D. Scholar Department of Linguistics Assam University, Silchar 788011
[email protected] Phone: 8402023162 ====================================================================== Abstract The paper aims to discuss the word order pattern in Biate (ISO639-3), an endangered and undocumented language spoken in Jaintia Hills of Meghalaya, Dima Hasao (North Cachar Hills) district of Assam and some parts of Mizoram and Manipur. Biate stands for both the people and the language. It is spoken by 19,000 speakers (Ethnologue 2019). Grierson-Konow (1904) and Graham Thurgood (2003) classified Biate to the Old-Kuki sub-group of Sino-Tibetan language family. The paper will discuss and examine the word order pattern, which is one of the primary ways in which languages differ from one another. Biate is a verb-final language, with SOV as its basic word order. It exhibits a large number of characteristics expected of it as an OV language. Biate employs postpositions (PP), which follow the noun phrase they combine with. Like other Kuki-Chin languages, the genitive is indicated by the possessor which precedes the possessed item. The Adjective follows the noun (NAdj) in Biate. Noun modifiers like numerals and classifiers follow the noun. Relative clause precedes the noun (RelN) in Biate. Keywords: Biate, Kuki-Chin, Word order, Tibeto-Burman Introduction Biate is one of the recognized tribes of Assam, Meghalaya, Mizoram, and Manipur under ‘Any Kuki Tribes’. The word Biate has varied meanings; the most common meaning that seems everybody accepts is worshippers, referring to a common worship of a particular deity or different worship of various deities by their ancestors from time immemorial, (Remsiama Ngamlai, 20141).